Bring Her Back (2025) – A Harrowing Descent Into Grief and the Occult

With Bring Her Back, Australian siblings Danny and Michael Philippou—fresh off their breakout hit Talk to Me—deliver a sophomore feature that’s less a ghost story and more a full-body immersion into maternal grief turned monstrous.

Clocking in at a lean 104 minutes, Bring Her Back wastes no time plunging its audience into emotional and visceral chaos. The story centers on Andy (Billy Barratt) and his visually impaired stepsister Piper (Sora Wong), orphaned after their father’s death and placed in the care of Laura (Sally Hawkins), a foster mother whose warmth quickly curdles into something cultish and cruel. What begins as a tale of fractured family dynamics soon spirals into a grotesque resurrection ritual involving preserved corpses, demonic possession, and a mute foster boy named Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips) whose physical and psychological unraveling forms the film’s most stomach-churning throughline.

As a self-professed horror veteran—this (week alone included three Cronenberg films, one Crimes of the Future (2022) we reviewed) —I found myself genuinely shaken. There’s a particular sequence (you’ll know it when you see it) so viscerally upsetting that I had to pause the film and step away—a luxury afforded by home viewing. I can only imagine the collective trauma of theatergoers forced to endure it in real time, holding their breath until their lungs burned. It’s unforgettable, yes—but not necessarily in a way you’ll thank the filmmakers for.

Crafted Terror, Emotional Volatility

And that’s the rub. Bring Her Back is undeniably effective. Sally Hawkins delivers a performance of terrifying emotional volatility, oscillating between maternal tenderness and ritualistic mania with chilling precision. Barratt and Wong, especially the latter in her acting debut, bring raw vulnerability to roles that could’ve easily tipped into melodrama. The practical effects are grotesque in the best (or worst) possible way, and the film’s pacing—tight, relentless, suffocating—leaves little room for reprieve.

Yet I’m left wrestling with a nagging question: Was it all necessary? The film’s commitment to extremity sometimes overshadows its emotional core. While Talk to Me balanced its scares with genuine character depth, Bring Her Back occasionally feels like it’s chasing shock for shock’s sake—though even its most wince-inducing moments are executed with undeniable craft.

"This isn’t a movie I’d casually recommend. But it is one I desperately want to discuss with anyone who’s seen it. It lingers—not like a ghost, but like a bruise."

This isn’t a movie I’d casually recommend. But it is one I desperately want to discuss with anyone who’s seen it. It lingers—not like a ghost, but like a bruise. Tender, dark, and impossible to ignore.

Final Verdict: A masterfully crafted, deeply unsettling horror film that pushes boundaries—perhaps too far—but never loses its grip. 4 out of 5 stars.

P.S. This is the second Australian horror feature this month following our review of Rabbit (2017). Clearly, Down Under is where the nightmares are.

Comrade Courant Culture Critic